Magnificent Pair of Sailors Scrimshaw Walrus Tusks

A Magnificent Pair of Sailors Scrimshaw Walrus Tusks, one engraved with three sailing vessels; HMS Illustrious, HMS Trincomalee, flanked by a blowing whale and HMS Pilot, inscribed with the words ‘Walrus Tusk’ the other similarly engraved with HMS Erin, Conway and Stag and inscribed ‘Port Clarence August 1834’
Both pierced at the tip for suspension
Excellent colour and patination
Circa 1834

Size: 69cm and 67cm long – 27 ins long and 26½ ins long (respectively)

Provenance: Ex Private Northern British collection
Old inscription: (1)834 – written in old ink (referring to date)

The Trincomalee was named after an engagement between the Royal and French Navy’s in 1782 off the Sri Lankan (Ceylon) port of the same name. She is the oldest British warship that is still afloat, Nelson’s Victory being in dry dock, and restored to her former glory she is now the centre-piece of the historic dockyard museum in Hartlepool.
Ordered in October 1812 she was built in Bombay, India and launched on the 12th October 1817. Mainly constructed with Malabar teak because of the shortage of English oak during the shipbuilding drives of the Napoleonic wars, HMS Trincomalee was sailed to Portsmouth dockyard and there laid up in reserve. Nothing has been previously known of her history between 1819 and 1845 when she was cut down to a 26-gun 6th rate corvette and fitted for service in the West Indies. So it is possible to now assume that she was used as a whaling vessel during this period sailing out of the whaling station, which existed at Port Clarence in Alaska.
Between 1860 and 1897 she was moored mast-less in Sunderland, West Hartlepool and Southampton serving as a hulk ship. In 1897 she was sold for scrap and then purchased by Goerge Wheatley Cobb who restored and renamed her ‘Foudroyant’ in honour of one of Lord Nelson’s famous ships. Moored in Falmouth she was used as a training ship for sea cadets, who were often depicted by Henry Scott Tuke in his paintings, and as accommodation until 1991 when the ship was again restored and renamed back to Trincomalee. She was then transferred to Hartlepool where she remains moored as a museum ship.